Read Online Ted & Me by Dan Gutman - Free Book Online Page A

learned about it in school.
    As I got closer to the building, I remembered that I had seen it before. Twice, in fact. It was in my Social Studies textbook and also in that movie National Treasure . This wasn’t any hotel. It was Independence Hall! Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence a few blocks away from this spot, and then he must have walked down Market Street to this building, where the declaration was signed. I remembered that the United States Constitution was also written in this very same building. I had a test on all this stuff at school just a few weeks earlier.
    Finding Ted Williams could wait.
    In the twenty-first century, I would bet, you can’t get close to an historic building like this one. They probably have barricades all around it, and armed guards. But on this night, in 1941, there was nobody around. I could walk right up to the building and touch it.
    I stood on my tiptoes to look inside the window. There were no lights on inside Independence Hall; but from the streetlights and the light of the moon, I could see a faint outline of something that was familiar to me.
    It was the Liberty Bell.
    There it was. I could even see the crack. I couldn’t make out the words written on it, but I knew what they were because we had to memorize them for a test: “Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
    I stood there for a few minutes marveling at thefact that I was standing with my nose against the window of the building in which our country was born. I was staring at the symbol of America, and the most famous bell in the world. I was so caught up in the moment that I didn’t notice the guy standing next to me.
    â€œIt’s a beautiful thing, huh?” he said.
    I glanced at him. He was a tall guy, maybe 6 feet 3 or so, and thin. He had long legs and a long neck, which made him slightly goofy looking. I recognized the face.
    â€œYou’re not…”
    â€œThe name is Williams,” he said, sticking out his hand, “Ted Williams.”

9
The Heebie-Jeebies
    I JUST STARED AT T ED W ILLIAMS’S FACE FOR THE LONGEST time. He probably thought I was crazy.
    It was obviously the same guy I had met the first time, in the plane. He had the same curly black hair and bushy eyebrows. But he was so much younger now. Twelve years, I quickly calculated. In 1941, Ted Williams was just ten years older than me.
    The biggest difference was that he was so skinny. I recalled his nicknames: the Splendid Splinter, the Stringbean Slugger, and Toothpick Ted. It didn’t look like the man standing next to me was capable of hitting one home run, much less 521 of them. He must have had a perfect swing.
    â€œYou look so different,” I blurted out.
    Ted looked at me oddly.
    â€œDifferent from what?” he asked. “Did I meet you before?”
    â€œIn the plane…”
    As soon as the words left my mouth, I realized it was a stupid thing to say. For all I knew, Ted Williams hadn’t even had his first plane ride yet.
    â€œWhat plane?” he asked. “Are you nuts, Junior?”
    I could have slapped myself. It’s 1941, idiot! When we crash-landed in South Korea, it was 1953. He’s not going to know about that. It didn’t happen yet.
    â€œI’m sorry,” I said, flustered. “I’m a little nervous. I never met anybody famous before.”
    â€œForget it,” he replied. “What are you doing out on the streets this late at night? Are you lost?”
    He had that same loud voice but seemed a little more soft-spoken than he would become in 1953. He wasn’t cursing as much either.
    â€œNo,” I said. “I’m just out…walking around.”
    â€œDo your mom and dad know you’re here?” he asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
    â€œWell, yeah,” I said. “I mean no. Not exactly.”
    â€œWhere are they?”
    â€œIn Kentucky,” I told him.